"It was a big Empire in those days, wasn't it? It was very good fun."

- Major-General R.C.A. Edge
 

No India to go to

Interviews

Major-General R.C.A. Edge:

"We were British and they were Indians and never the twain shall meet. This was the sort of feeling. And I'm sure that this was wrong and that, if one were doing it again, I think one would take a lot of trouble to get to know Indians. "

- Major-General Sir Charles Dalton

Never the Twain

"There was a sort of excitement and a fascination. India was chock full of character, and it had this extraordinary characteristic that around every corner you could get a bit of magic. And around a corner, for no reason, in some dirty, filthy slum, which a lot of it was, you would suddenly come across this magic that would just hit you in the face."

- Margery Hall

Quite Improbable Places: Indian Travel

"In those days we had no water laid on and our water was in big, cool rooms. Everything was dark and we had all our water put into great big mutti vessels which evaporated, so we really didn't suffer very badly, I don't think. And paraffin oil lamps, which gave you a beautiful glow in the evening."

- Merryel Hatch-Barnwell

Life in the Bungalows

"People at home thought it was all play and no work. Actually we did much more work than most people at home."

- Colonel John Hainsworth

Running Your Little Empire

Interviews

Working Lives

Fergus Innes:

"It was exciting going to India, a new life. There wasn't much doing in England then. We were going from a rather dull career in England to something exciting in India."

- Colonel C.A.K. Innes-Wilson

The Lure of the East

Interviews

Fergus Innes:

"It's rather sad for the younger generation that it no longer exists as it did. I remember when our son was commissioned -- he's in the Army, too -- he said, 'Oh, what's the good. There's no India to go to.'"

- Major General R.C.A. Edge

No More India to Go to:
Departure and Connections

"India to me, it was primitive, interesting, and I'm like Kipling: 'East is East and West is West, and ne'er the twain will meet.' And I lived there twenty-eight years."

-Kate Garrod, whose husband was an engineer in the Indian Public Works Department

Never the Twain? Indo-British Relations

"We used to go out of an evening. Around our mess we could walk out, walk two or three miles and shoot a couple of partridges for dinner. It was a nice little country estate."

- Roy Metcalf, who served in the Indian Army and Indian Political Service

Imperial Diversions:
The Club, the Hills, the Field

"How one lived in India in those days--one would have expected in a place like Patna, which was the headquarters of the province, more of the amenities of civilization."

- Robin Adair, member of the Indian Civil Service, 1937-1947